A Hole in One's Heart [Kakashi Hatake]

Chapter 18: The Toad Sage

If you can't tell from the title and the picture, we get to see Jiraiya in this chapter. He really is one of my favorites, despite his outwardly pervy nature. For the dialogue from the series, I used the manga so if you are used to the anime, this might not be exactly what you remember, but the manga was so much easier than watching and re-watching scenes from the show to try and get the dialogue correct. 

I don't own Naruto or any of the dialogue from the manga, but I do own my plot and my OC.

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     Sighing happily, I sank into the warm hot spring water. An involuntary sigh of relief left my lips as the water soothed my muscles that were incredibly stiff from laying in a hospital bed for four days. 'I need to come here more often. I wonder what has been keeping me away?' I closed my eyes and relaxed completely unaware of my surroundings. There were several other women there as well, all talking in groups of two or three, but I sat there quietly in my corner of the spring trying to tune out the rest of the world.

     "I don't know who you are but, I WILL NOT ALLOW SUCH SHAMELESS BEHAVIOR!!"

     "Huh?"

     The outburst was followed by the sounds of a quick scuffle. 'Jiraiya...' Wrapping my towel around my torso, I left the spring in a hurry, throwing on my clothes in the locker room. I didn't even bother to dry my hair. My green kimono top was tied tightly over my dark blue ninja pants in my anger as I pulled the ties a little too hard. Slipping on a pair of brown sandals, I came out of the hot springs and found myself face to face with a tall, broad, white-haired man.

     "You! You're Jiraiya, Toad Sage of the Legendary Sannin?" I demanded glaring at him, one finger stabbing his chest.

     "Ana?!" Naruto looked at me strangely.

     "See kid. She knows who I am." Naruto looked at my angered face and clearly wasn't impressed. I looked more like I would tear him limb from limb than be in awe of Jiraiya's ninja status.

     "What were you doing looking into the hot spring?" I said while digging my finger deeper into his chest, but I already knew what his answer would be.

     "Just a little research for the novels that I'm writing." Subtly channeling some chakra into my unoccupied left hand, I punched him right below his solar plexus [A/N: Just in case you don't know, this is right under the rib cage and getting hit in the solar plexus knocks the wind out of you], and he doubled over with a slight grunt. I broke away from the gasping ninja.

     "And you said that you were a powerful ninja, but Ana just destroyed you, believe it!"

     "Ana... Hmm are you that ninja from the alternate dimension? My contacts in the Leaf let me know about your situation."

     I nodded, ignoring his pained breathing, "I can talk to you later about what I have seen of Orochimaru's plans so far." I anticipated his request.

     "I'm not back here in the village to fight him, but I would like to know about what he has planned. Come by while Naruto is training later, we can talk then." I nodded and walked away, my wet hair swinging behind me.

     "What a woman..." Blood was threatening to pour from his nose. Naruto looked at him entirely unimpressed, still. 

     "I'd watch out, Pervy Sage, I think that Kakashi-sensei already likes her." I heard them as I walked away. 'What does Naruto know about that? He is literally the least observant person in history. But, he does understand emotions at an extremely high level despite his scholarly incompetence so maybe he sees something that I don't-' I stopped that thought before it finished. 'Healthy, professional, student-teacher relationship. Healthy, professional, student-teacher relationship. Healthy, professional, student-teacher relationship.' I chanted in my head with each step as I walked back to my apartment. I was trying to convince myself and failing miserably. Luckily, it was at least a month before I would see Kakashi again so I had time to sort out my confused emotions. I was walking up the stairs, completely engrossed in my thoughts and not paying attention to my surroundings. I knew that I wasn't being a good ninja at the moment, but I didn't care.